1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electrical connectors and in particular those electrical connectors that are mounted in a wall in order to form an electrical interconnection therethrough.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In industry there is a need for forming electrical connections across partitions or walls. One example of this is door-to-body electrical connections that must occur in an automobile. Another example would be in the electronics area where it is necessary to form and interconnection across the panels of an outer housing surrounding electronic equipment. There have been numerous connectors designed for this application.
One reoccurring problem though is that it is often necessary for the mating connector halves to be interconnected while having access to only one side of the wall or panel. This requires a first connector half to be inserted into an opening in the wall or panel and then retained there, which must occur with access to only one side of the panel. While it is simple enough to prevent the connector half from being overinserted by simple incorporating a shoulder upon the connector half, the difficulty is in assuring the that connector half does not push back out of the opening as that whatever features are on the opposite side of the opening must have passed therethrough, making it difficult to establish an interference to prevent the undesired back-out. In addition, the retention must be sufficiently robust, that when the mating connector half is inserted from the other side of the wall, the connector half mounted in the wall may not be permitted to back-out.